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"I ael had bowed her head in deference "Angel of the thunder that rolls across Eurasia"

Tessriel was looking at Arriane, and so in a distant el Her sister Yes They hadn’t known each other well in Heaven--there had been a league of other angels between them, but there had always been a connection That inexplicablenews of your brother Roland," Tessriel said to Arriane, who had gasped at the sound of his name

"Roland resides in Lucifer’s do us news fro you news--" Tessriel’s voice wavered and Arriane’s heart went out to her She hadn’t seen Roland since the Fall and she e Arriane scraainst Gabbe, who held her back with the white edge of her wing

"Go now, leave us be," Gabbe commanded It was final

Tessriel shook her head sadly as she turned to go She looked back once at Arriane, briefly and with great sorrow "Goodbye"

"Goodbye!"

But it wasn’t goodbye Years later, on her oalking the shoals of a ain

"Tessriel?"

Tessriel looked up fro She was naked, her pure-white wings ski slickly down her back

"Is it you?" Tessriel whispered "I thought I’d never see you again"

When the angel rose frouise was too much for Arriane, who looked away, thrilled and e water, felt a brush of ind, and then, a second later, the sweetest lips pressed down on hers Wet arulfed her

"What was that?" Arriane blinked in astonishled with unexpected desire

"A kiss I proain, that’s what I would do"

"And if I left right now and then came back," Arriane wondered aloud, "would you kiss ain?"

Tessriel nodded, a vast smile on her face

"Goodbye," Arriane whispered, closing her eyes When she opened theain

And again

On a dark fjord north of Norway … on a ship setting sail for the Indies … on a dusty desert plateau in Persia … or in a rainstorm inside a rain forest--when the world was uncoel had yet turned in the direction each would ultioodbye to say hello again, alwaysas far as she ever had from the lips of the demon she’d loved, Arriane passed a pair of herons in the sky They were paired, but she had to be alone Because of old allegiances neither would betray It drove her mad with frustration She needed to be someplace lonesome and remote, where her heart could ache in peace

Tears blurred her vision as she cli meadows of the valley below She didn’t want to leave Tess; she couldn’t leave quickly enough Soon, she had escaped the dairy in its little verdant vale, which she had grown to love

Love What was it, anyway?

Daniel and Lucinda seeht she danced toward love’s awareness: tender, fleeting moments locked in a kiss with Tess, when both souls lost themselves completely If only they could have stayed like that forever, lying to themselves in an extended state of bliss

Maybe love was lying to yourself

No The world bore down on theht of day, Arriane knew that what she felt for Tess both was and was not love It was everything--and it was ih this kind of goodbye, the ugly kind, once before

It was a few hundred years after the Fall Arriane had finally made her choice She had been back to the plains of Heaven and, after sos shone a terrific iridescent silver--the er to show them off to her love She found Tessriel under the Areed to meet

"Look what I’ve done--"

"What have you done?"

Just as Arriane’s wings bore a brand-new silver shine, Tessriel’s wings were tainted--a glorious, gaudy gold

"You never told…" Arriane’s voice trailed off

"You never told me, either" Tess’s eyes welled up with tears, but as soon as she wiped thery

"But why? Why would you side with him?"

"Isn’t your choice as arbitrary as mine? Your master is only the authority because you say he is"

"At least he is good, unlike your master!"

"Good Evil They’re just words, Arriane Who can trust them, anyway?"

"Ho can I love you now?" Arriane whispered

"It’s simple," Tess said with a sad shake of her head "You can’t"

It was Roland who brought theether Now Arriane almost wished he hadn’t But at the time, she had needed Tess ed for a stolen moment between the two in Jerusalee to Lilith

That e hadn’t happened

But Arriane and Tessriel had As soon as they saw each other, their argument dissolved into another unstoppable kiss

"We must be free to each be ourselves independently," Tessriel had told her, "but we shall never be as strong and solid as we are e’re together"